6 February 28 • 2019 jn A ll winter, Detroit Jews for Justice leaders have been busily planning the DJJ’ s 4th Annual Purim Extravaganza. While doing so, people have asked, “What’ s jus- tice-y about Purim?” Purim celebrates the story of how a Jewish woman named Esther saves the Jews of Persia from a genocidal plot proposed by the wicked vizier Haman (boo!) and approved by the bumbling King Achashverosh. The leader of the Jews at that time was a Shushanite resident named Mordechai. He had a cousin, Esther, who was orphaned as a young girl. Mordechai raised her and treated her as a daughter. This story, which is fundamentally a story of the triumph of oppressed people over the machinations of a hateful and/or apathetic state appara- tus, has been told and retold through the centuries in ways that invoke and parody the struggles of the day. This year, DJJ is doing its annual Purim shpiel (play). There is a sense of collective catharsis, cohesion and power that comes from putting down the opposition and dramatizing the ascent of the “good guys.” Through our revelry, we cultivate resilience and enact the triumph that we so long for. But the Purim story does not end with the simple foiling of Haman’ s genocidal plot. Rather than Mordechai being hanged on the gal- lows, it is Haman and his sons who hang. “V’ nahafokh hu.” We flip it on them and redirect the threat of anni- hilation from us onto them. For a suffering people living subsumed under the shadow of an empire, such a revenge fantasy is understandable. But is this the best we can do? Rather than sanitizing this narrative or relishing its violent conclusion, why not take the fantasy of Purim as an invitation to envision an ever more holistic, totalizing and sustainable liberation for our people and beyond? The mitzvot (commandments) of Purim teach us to enact — at least for a day! — a radical alternative to the systems that guide our daily living. We are taught to practice expansive joy; to engage in gift-giving and mutual aid within our communities; to give tzedakah, direct reparations for economic injustice. We wear costumes and dress in ways that reveal who we could be — and in some ways really are! And there is, of course, the teaching from the rabbis that tells us that we should drink to the point being unable to differentiate between the phrases Arur Haman (“Cursed be Haman”) and Baruch Mordechai (“Blessed be Mordechai”) — not to erase the dis- tinctions between harmfulness and caring, but to remind us that even our most treasured truisms deserve to be interrogated and unpacked. Purim is a day when we are taught to remember that another world is possible: a day to reflect on the world as it has been and to manifest the way we want things to be in the future. ■ RSVP for the DJJ Purim Extravaganza at detroitjewsforjustice.org/purim2019. Roslyn Abt Schindler is associate professor emerita at Wayne State University, an active member of Congregation T’ chiyah and a Detroit Jews for Justice leader since its inception. Jake Ehrlich is a graduate of the Jewish Communal Leadership Program at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. His is an active leader in DJJ and Congregation Tchiyah’ s community engage- ment associate. commentary Purim Off ers Alternative Vision for Future The Jewish News aspires to communicate news and opinion that’ s useful, engaging, enjoyable and unique. It strives to refl ect the full range of diverse viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. We desire to create and maintain a challenging, caring, enjoyable work environment that encourages creativity and innovation. We acknowledge our role as a responsible, responsive member of the community. Being competitive, we must always strive to be the most respected, outstanding Jewish community publication in the nation. Our rewards are informed, educated readers, very satisfi ed advertisers, contented employees and profi table growth. To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 29200 Northwestern Highway, #110, Southfield, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., #110, Southfield, MI 48034. OUR JN MISSION 1942 - 2019 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week jn letters views Arthur M. 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You are the pride and joy of our Jewish community. — Rachel Kapen West Bloomfield A Remembrance of Abraham Weberman On Jan. 25, 2019, Holocaust survivor Abraham Weberman passed away. Weberman was the president of the Shaarit Haplaytah, the survivor organiza- tion of Metropolitan Detroit. He was one of the pioneering Holocaust survivors of the Shaarit Haplaytah whose dream it was to build a Holocaust Memorial Center. The Shaarit Haplaytah helped survivors get to know one another as they built a community for the new survivors coming to Detroit after the war. They held dinner dances, had card games, raised money to buy ambulances for the new State of Israel and raised money to build a memorial to remember the Holocaust. This later would become the Holocaust Memorial Center. Weberman was a survivor of the infamous Lodz Ghetto. After the war, he went to a displaced persons camp in Frankfurt where he met his first wife, Lotka. In 1947, he came to Israel, then known as Palestine. He fought in the Hagganah and later served in the Israel Defense Forces. He moved to Detroit to join his brother Leon who was living here. Abraham Weberman’ s biography can be read at portraitsofhonor.org. Weberman was a good man who had a heart of gold. He will be sorely missed by our community. — Dr. Charles Silow West Bloomfield continued from page 5